Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!

View

Discuss

Share

We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).

Velcroman1 writes "The FBI arrested two alleged members of the hacking collectives LulzSec and Anonymous on Thursday morning in San Francisco and Phoenix. Search warrants were also being executed in New Jersey, Minnesota and Montana, an FBI official told FoxNews.com. A document purported to come from the FBI leaked online earlier this month called these hacker groups a national security threat. One individual was described as part of the LulzSec group, the other belongs to the group that calls itself Anonymous, the official said. The suspected hacker arrested in California is homeless and alleged to have been involved in the hacking of Santa Cruz County government websites."

These people always seem totally unaware of how law enforcement works - slowly and methodically. You didn't get away just because no-one kicked down your door right away, instead they're out there collecting evidence with which to nail you.

It's PR control by the law enforcement. Arrest a few people here and there and no one really makes a fuss... Arrest hundreds of people at one time and people start questioning what's happening...

Bullshit. Arrest hundreds of people at one time and it's called a "crackdown." The Fibbies have done it before, and they'd do it again in a heartbeat if they knew enough.

And people would applaud it if they did. The Anonymous clowns have done a lousy job of drumming up sympathy for their supposed cause. What they call "protests" come across as stupid childish pranks and vandalism, because nobody took responsibility, nobody stood up for the "cause." (Real sit-ins have people lining up to be arrested and decli

Lets add the word 'corrupted' to that "Law Enforcement". Conspiracy charges are typically what is used when there is no real evidence that an individual has actually committed a crime but instead they are going for sounds like, looks like they might have charges. Also police, only police the laws, they absolutely do not enforce the laws (this is the delusion of ignorant crew cut jock thugs in uniform) the courts enforce the laws.

Like it or not they are criminals. Everything they have done they broke laws. Its not there jobs to get back at the man,and even in a couple of cases the man went to jail for what he did. They will do there time as well, as they should . Break the law pay the price man up.

They are charging him with "causing intentional damage to a protected computer." But since he did it in coordination with others, they can add the "conspiracy to" charge as well.

Conspiracy is also used when people are planning a crime, and there is clear evidence of such, but they haven't yet commited the crime. If you don't like this concept, maybe you'd rather the police sit back and let a group plotting to kill you do it so the prosecutor can get actual murder charges instead of just conspiracy to murder

Those guys wanted to stick to to the man and buck the system. They knew what they were getting into, or at least they should have. It was well known even back in the 1990s that the Feds and corporate America had zero interest in actually securing their systems. The systems are wide open (more or less), but the punishment for accessing them without permission is draconian. There is a reason I got out of the "computer underground" when I turned 18. I had my mischievous fun when I was a minor and then I s

Or the first rounds of kids they picked up in the UK and US started rolling over on others. Which would be a bit... humorous. We know that many of the ones at the top know each others identities. And it wouldn't be entirely surprising, given that they nailed the important kids first. Ideologies can degrade quickly when you're being held by the authorities and looking at a prison term.

The important take-away here is, Anon is not some leaderless collective of political activists. There is a top, and the

They arrested a homeless guy as a nefarious hacker. I guess he has such mad skillz he just thinks about the hack and it happens even if he doesn't have an internet connection, running water, or a bathroom.

They arrested a homeless guy as a nefarious hacker. I guess he has such mad skillz he just thinks about the hack and it happens even if he doesn't have an internet connection, running water, or a bathroom.

"Homeless" just means he doesn't own a home or rent an apartment. It doesn't mean he sleeps in a gutter or shelter. Julian Assange likely fits this definition.

Yeah, that's part of the hilarity with these lulsec/anonymous kids. They keep picking fights with ginormously powerful entities which would not think twice about tossing them into small cells at the bottom of a deep holes, yet they seem to feel these Death Star Agencies and Corporations will back off due to the punks' mad skillz with internet servers.

No, the point is it is funny. That is it. Anonymous is in it for the lulz. If some of the horde gets taken out nobody really cares.

Also "LulzSec" are actually pretty terrible at hacking. Most of it is really low rent exploits and social engineering which is why it is so amusing how much "damage" they have caused. The only thing that makes them a cut above a thousand other minor hackers is that they are publicising it, which is exactly the best way to piss the corporations off. They don't care that much about the intrusions, just that their customers are finding out how unsafe these "trusted" companies are.

P.S. The real dangerous hackers live in non-extradition countries and have thugs with guns at hand. They aren't scared of the FBI.

That's because when you get ten Anonymous together, you'll have twelve different opinions. The media will (of course) cite the most newsworthy sounding statements, not "I'm just bored" or "I wonder whether we can take 'em down".

There is nothing of greater threat to national security than a HOMELESS hacker. Though I guess it is good as any excuse to get such riff-raft off the curbs. Why just the other day I saw this homeless person and immediately thought; you know, that person is probably a real threat to my countries security and needs FBI involvement to justify their jailing.

There is nothing of greater threat to national security than a HOMELESS hacker. Though I guess it is good as any excuse to get such riff-raft off the curbs. Why just the other day I saw this homeless person and immediately thought; you know, that person is probably a real threat to my countries security and needs FBI involvement to justify their jailing.

It's easier to go after the kiddies than to address the real threats, such as the Russian mafia or whoever is doing the stuff from China.

I'm totally with you, but I don't think you take it far enough. I demand that shoplifters, hackers and wife beaters be pursued by FBI, but also CIA, NSA, DEA and FDA as well. You can never be too careful about them national security threatening shoplifting terrorists!

Lets stop going after shoplifters, hackers, and wife beaters, until we've taken care of the mafia, drug lords, and crazy dictators with nukes.

Lack of common sense alert. The FBI isn't usually called in to deal with shoplifters or domestic violence.

Otherwise, I would say that's a pretty accurate sentiment. I don't see why we need to bother with bored kids exposing potentially embarrassing information which barely makes it onto the radar of our everyday lives when there are really evil bastards out there with private armies and the keys to shit like Zeus and such.

No, but I sure wonder how the homeless fella had regular enough access to a reliable internet connection to commit any serious hacking crimes. I suppose that's part of the burden of evidence that rests on the prosecution, right?

Despite the political rhetoric, you don't get arrested for your potential threat, you get arrested for an alleged crime. Pretty simple concept.
If I spray-paint "My mom's a whore call here at 555-1212" on the side of your car, I broke the law.

And no one's mom will get arrested (or even investigated) for prostitution.
FYI, her number seems to be disconnected.

Despite the political rhetoric, you don't get arrested for your potential threat, you get arrested for an alleged crime. Pretty simple concept.

It's not cost-effective to arrest people for alleged crimes, unless it's violation of copyright, and they can be scared into coughing up lots of money. You arrest people for future crimes that will cost you money. Try not to forget that we're talking about capitalist society here. Everything comes back to money at some point.

There is nothing of greater threat to national security than a HOMELESS hacker. Though I guess it is good as any excuse to get such riff-raft off the curbs. Why just the other day I saw this homeless person and immediately thought; you know, that person is probably a real threat to my countries security and needs FBI involvement to justify their jailing.

Yes. This was all about the homelessness. The hacking part had nothing to do with it.

As more and more Americans are forced into homelessness because of economic destruction initiated by their traitorous government, the authorities will rightly begin to equate being homeless with being disgruntled with the establishment.

As it is, the homeless are often stalked and harassed by the cops(predators like to practice in between the real hunts) and even beaten and manslaughtered by the law or gangs of masked, steroid-addled MMA freaks.

Maybe he holds a cardboard sign that says "will hack for booze", then someone hands him their laptop and says "lets see it" then he goes all slappity slap on the keyboard and BAM!, "swordfish" was the password.

There is nothing of greater threat to national security than a HOMELESS hacker.

A friend of mine was homeless. The only homeless guy I knew who wore $1,000+ suits and drove a Mercedes. He was traveling so much he just decided not to pay for a place he'd barely ever use.

A few years ago I couldn't imagine going without a permanent residence, but the rise of smartphones, netbooks, tablets, flat-screen TVs, Hulu/Netfix, etc., has seen me reconsidering that position quite a bit, lately. These days, when I'm tr

How they know the homeless guy did it, yes I know its not impossible for people to get on a computer, but unless the guy had a freaking home office in his box its probably going to be on shared computers

The homeless guy is alleging he did it. May be, he just wants a hot meal and free health care for the next twenty years. If that's the case, kudos to him for getting himself upgraded to Federal prison. I hear Federal prison is much better than State prison.

The most obvious ways would be that he was caught on CCTV at the premises where the attack originated, for instance a library or coffee shop / internet cafe. If their systems are poorly secured, it's entirely possible the attach was launched from somewhere like that.

This is why I quietly laugh at all the folks who say they'd do their torrenting / hacking from a coffee shop. Timestamped logs + CCTV footage + credit card receipts = arrests.

It's a good thing the FBI is swatting at these gnats, diverting resources from investigating Chinese hacking, rampant industrial espionage, or the ubiquitous banking fraud. Fantastic work, G-men! You're making us proud.

Of course! Chinese hackers, industrial spies and bank defrauders don't broadcast it or make it public and make the FBI look like inapt idiots. They are, essentially, no threat to the FBI funding, and hence no problem. They're basically in the same game, keep it under wraps and everyone's happy.

He got caught because he REGISTERED his username on the internet. This breaks rule #1 of the internet, what's posted cannot be unposted.

I was reading the court indictment wondering if they were somehow able to trace a proxy after the fact of use, which with something like TOR is quite the feat, but no, dude signed up to hidemyass.com, used the SAME user name, and thus will now meet Bubba in prison. Ah, the world of hacking, a mistake, and its your ass.

Homeless does not necessarily mean on the street. It could also mean "of no fixed address". Someone who couch surfs among a group of friends every few days or weeks is considered "homeless" but still has a place to stay and an internet connection to use.

I guess we can all sleep at night now. They finally brought these 2 heinous groups down. Who'd have thought they were hiding in plain sight on the streets of LA?!?! Good work FBI... now you can focus on more important crimes like people downloading music and such.

I've searched many of the other major news agency websites including the AP, BBC, CBS, NBC, and CNN. I have not been able to find this story anywhere else which doesn't mean that it is not true but that it may be that Fox took a few liberties with the story or that they have some secret insider at the FBI. Here in Minneapolis I've checked the Star tribune which is a good source of local MN news and the only thing it has is about how a police officer shot an woman who displayed an handgun during a traffic st

Our government really does not need to get into opposition with a pile of skilled hackers. The hackers may well win. Further the revelations released by outfits like Wikileaks seem to offer far more good than bad to the American public. Maybe we can get past the point where we have people in government who do nothing but lie and spread manure to foreign governments. Why not simply make government completely transparent. Are we to really believe that our nation can only exist if we lie, sneak about

I routinely get modded down for this, due to the particular fairly blinkered "pro-cracktivist" attitude at Facebook. The old notion that "disagreeing with something is not a valid reason to mod someone down" goes completely out the window on this issue. But the Anonymous/LulzSec "hacktivists" are actually criminals and should be investigated and arrested if found.

Sometimes their intentions have been relatively "noble", other times it has seemed to be mainly for the lulz. In any case, society does not accept

No, thats not what homeless means. Homeless means you dont have a permenant residence-- you could be at a shelter, or moving from friend's house to friend's house, or you could be "on the streets", or any number of other possibilities.

Seeing as hackers tend to need internet access, Im guessing its one of the first two.

Stand up to the MafiAA, stand up to the abusive assholes at Sony, stand up to abusive cops who don't like the idea of being caught on video shooting a handcuffed homeless guy in the back, caught beating up a special ed kid, or try to get a 75-year charge on someone for recording them.

No sense of proportion, a culture of victimhood.

The MafiAA, as some like to call it, simply stands between the geek and his free movie fix and the ego boost that comes with sharing files with 15,000 of your closest friends on the P2P nets.

No, two wrongs do not make a right. However, it has been proven, with blackboards full of numbers with squiggly symbols and shit, that 2 wrongs squared, divided by the square root of 1 minus the universal gravitational constant, times the indefinite integral of fuck you, do.

I would have thought being homeless was a pretty darn good evasion method.

I suppose it's more of a living with a friend and not paying rent kinda thing. Article gives no further information that I can see.

Just think how would you do it? The first thing you do is track the IP address. Probably led them to an library, school, internet cafe, McDonald's,.... Once there, watch and record the IP traffic at that location until you have both your suspect and your case against the suspect.

I'm sure that homeless are as much creatures of habit as the rest of us.